Plasmas Meet Plasmonics Everything Old Is New Again
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View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Springer - Publisher Connector Eur. Phys. J. D (2012) 66: 226 DOI: 10.1140/epjd/e2012-30273-3 THE EUROPEAN PHYSICAL JOURNAL D Colloquium Plasmas meet plasmonics Everything old is new again A.E. Rider1,2,K.Ostrikov1,2,a, and S.A. Furman1 1 Plasma Nanoscience Centre Australia (PNCA), CSIRO Materials Science and Engineering, P.O. Box 218, Lindfield, 2070 New South Wales, Australia 2 Plasma Nanoscience @ Complex Systems, School of Physics, The University of Sydney, 2006 New South Wales, Australia Received 26 April 2012 / Received in final form 29 June 2012 Published online 4 September 2012 c The Author(s) 2012. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com Abstract. The term ‘plasmon’ was first coined in 1956 to describe collective electronic oscillations in solids which were very similar to electronic oscillations/surface waves in a plasma discharge (effectively the same formulae can be used to describe the frequencies of these physical phenomena). Surface waves originating in a plasma were initially considered to be just a tool for basic research, until they were successfully used for the generation of large-area plasmas for nanoscale materials synthesis and processing. To demonstrate the synergies between ‘plasmons’ and ‘plasmas’, these large-area plasmas can be used to make plasmonic nanostructures which functionally enhance a range of emerging devices. The incorporation of plasma- fabricated metal-based nanostructures into plasmonic devices is the missing link needed to bridge not only surface waves from traditional plasma physics and surface plasmons from optics, but also, more topically, macroscopic gaseous and nanoscale metal plasmas. This article first presents a brief review of surface waves and surface plasmons, then describe how these areas of research may be linked through Plasma Nanoscience showing, by closely looking at the essential physics as well as current and future applications, how everything old, is new, once again. 1 Introduction It is believed that a staggering 99% of the visible mat- ter in the universe exists in a plasma state [3]. As shown 1.1 Opening remarks in Figure 1a, this spans 32 orders of magnitude from the very small plasmas in metals relevant in plasmonics around the order of a nanometre to massive extragalac- The recent explosion in nanoscale science and technology tic objects [4] (e.g., double radio galaxies) of the order of research has led to increased interest in the field of plas- 1023 m. Figure 1b narrows the focus to the types of terres- monics. With the wealth of exotic and exciting nanoplas- trial plasmas that are typically only found in a laboratory monic applications [1] that are now possible with the setting, demonstrating the relationship between gaseous unparalleled level of control over nanostructure growth plasmas and plasmonics through plasma nanoscience. In afforded by modern fabrication techniques it is easy to more detail, plasmonics (essentially plasmas in metals)is forget just how closely plasmonics is linked to traditional a way to exert a greater degree of control over photonics- plasma physics, both theoretically and experimentally. related applications i.e., confining and guiding light over Other comprehensive reviews have noted the important sub-wavelength scales through the use of nanostructures role played by plasma physics in the development and for- and thin films. Similarly, manipulating plasma resonance mulation of plasmonics [2]. However, the purpose of this sustained discharges is a way to exert control over nano- article is to present a discussion of how plasmonics and electronics by controlling the etching and growth parame- plasma physics are linked, not only via their theoretical ters of the nanoscale components (such as nanostructures and physical origins, but also through modern nanofabri- and thin films). The common link between all of these cation techniques – with a particular emphasis on plasma- fields is plasma nanoscience. Hence, as a result of the aided nanoscale synthesis and processing. This current nanoscale control over energy and matter that is possi- link will be demonstrated with a focus on the idea of res- ble in plasma nanoscience [5] (i.e. manipulating gaseous onances – e.g., gaseous plasmas sustained by resonances plasmas to create controlled nanoarrays), a clear link may will be linked to resonances of localised surface plasmons be drawn between gaseous plasma physics and photonics. sustained in and around solids. Moreover, it will be shown that the nature of collective a e-mail: [email protected] phenomena can mathematically be scaled up and down as Page 2 of 19 Eur. Phys. J. D (2012) 66: 226 Fig. 1. (a) Typical sizes of plasmas – from extragalactic plasmas [4] to the metal plasmas of our interest. (b) Logic flowchart – from gaseous plasmas to nanoelectronics and pho- tonics, where ne is the number density of electrons. long as it is a plasma – from astrophysical plasmas to local surface plasmon resonances in metallic nanostructures. The colloquium is organised as follows: for the rest of this Introduction we will provide some definitions, fol- lowed by a brief historical account of the most impor- tant milestones both in plasma physics and in plasmonics. Fig. 2. Comparative sketches of (a) Volume plasmon (after Section 2 will then present the physics of surface waves, Maier [11]); (b) surface Plasmon Polariton; (c) Localised sur- coming predominantly from a plasma physics perspective. face plasmon. (b) and (c) reproduced with permission from [8], This will be followed by a discussion of the physics of sur- copyright 2007 Annual reviews. face plasmons in Section 3 with an emphasis on optics. The two areas will be drawn together in Section 4 where the backward electromagnetic (EM) waves (due to charge dis- field of Plasma Nanoscience [6,7] will be used as a back- placements caused by an incoming plane EM wave) – lead- drop to discuss the ways in which plasmonics and plasma ing to the creation of an energy gap [2]. The energy of the physics intersect. plasmon is [9]: Ebulk = ωp, (1) ω H 1.2 Definitions where p is the plasma frequency, as derived by . Mott- Smith [2]: 2 Before we can launch into a historical background or de- 4πnee ωp = , (2) tailed treatment, given the multidisciplinary nature of me plasmonics and the range of differing terminology used, n e a few definitions are necessary: where e is the electron density, is the charge of an electron and me is the effective mass of an electron. The Plasmons are quasi-particles that are collective oscilla- dispersion relation of a transverse volume plasmon is [2] tions of conduction electrons in a material, excited by elec- ω2 ω2 c2k2, tromagnetic radiation [8]. They are also referred to as a = p + (3) ‘quantized plasma (charge density) wave’ [9]. These oscil- k c lations are similar to the electronic plasma oscillations in where is the wavenumber and is the speed of light. a gaseous discharge, which led to Pines coining the term Hence, the phase and group velocities are given by: “plasmon” to describe the phenomena in 1956 [10]. Three v ω2 c2k2/k, types of plasmons are commonly referred to in the litera- ph = p + (4) ture: and Volume or Bulk plasmons are the cases discussed by 2 2 2 2 vg = c k/ ω + c k , (5) Pines and Bohm [12–14], visualised in Figure 2. Here, a p ‘bulk plasmon’ is the result of the creation of forward and respectively. Eur. Phys. J. D (2012) 66: 226 Page 3 of 19 Surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) also referred to nanofabrication of metallic or doped semiconductor nano- as ‘propagating surface plasmons’ are a quantum of a po- materials which when excited by EM radiation at a specific larised EM wave (called a polariton) in a propagating frequency give rise to their own characteristic resonance medium coupled with a plasmon [9] – depicted in Fig- frequencies which can be used in various devices, e.g., sen- ure 2b. Assuming a perfect Drude free-electron model for sors, solar cells, etc. (see Fig. 1b). the dielectric function, the energy of a SPP in a thin metal film in air is [9]: √ 1.3 Historical background ESPP = ωp/ 2, (6) A comparison of the evolution of the plasma physics and where ωp is defined as in equation (2). Following on, the optics fields, with particular plasmonic milestones marked, characteristic SPP frequency is [11]: is presented in the timeline in Figure 3. Whilst the use of ω plasmons can be traced back to the 4th century AD (i.e., ω = √ p , (7) the Lycurgus cup, popularly in medieval stained glass win- sp ε 1+ 2 dows thereafter), with further commentary by Faraday in 1857 [17], an understanding of what they are and how they where ε2 is the real dielectric constant of the non- absorbing dielectric half-space in a typical SPP set-up [11] worked was not truly established until the 20th century. which will be described in more detail in Section 1.3. The basis for treatment of light scattering by metals was largely set by the end of the first decade of the 1900’s, Localised surface plasmons (LSPs) arise when light with seminal works including Drude’s treatment of metals hits a metal nanostructure. The light wavelength is much in 1900 [18] and Mie’s theory for scattering and absorp- larger than the nanostructure, leading to a plasmon os- tion of electromagnetic radiation by a sphere in 1908 [19]. cillating around the nanostructure [8] as depicted in Fig- These works still form the theoretical background of the ure 2c. The energy of a surface plasmon in a small metallic majority of papers on localised surface plasmons.